Sea-ice Modellers Open Up?

Date: 18/06/10

An article in Wired magazine recounts how sea-ice modellers are sharing data and methods and are learning from each other in the process. It’s not obvious whether the sea-ice community have actually made their data and code open to the world or whether this is just a case of sharing within the community, but it’s a step forwards at least.

It’s also nice to see Mark Serreze apologising for his role in stirring up scare stories in 2007:

“In hindsight, probably too much was read into 2007, and I would take some blame for that,” Serreze said. “There were so many of us that were astounded by what happened, and maybe we read too much into it.”

If climatologists are now going to eschew scaremongering then that is certainly welcome. It’s therefore a pity that the Wired reporter, Alexis Madrigal, begins the piece with the obligatory reference to “record low levels of sea ice in the Arctic”. It’s not that she’s wrong, but just a few months ago sea ice levels were higher than they have been for years, and the more representative global sea ice levels are actually currently above their long-term average.